Admit you have friends
by JkPippa
Summary: RJ has a cold. And just like with everything else, he tries to deal with it on his own. But this time, his friends won't let him off the hook.


Casey knocked on the door to RJ's room, even though it was never closed properly. The only response he got was a low groan from the inside.

"RJ? Are you alright?" He asked, worried. Maybe his master had lost control of his animal form and was turning into a werewolf again.

No response from inside the room.

"Can I come in?" Casey asked the ajar door.

Another soft groan. He took it as a yes.

He opened the door and walked in, to find his kung fu master and fellow Power Ranger curled under blankets that were way too thick for the weather.

"RJ?"

Another grunt.

"What's wrong?" Casey asked, walking up to the bed. He heard RJ sneeze three times in rapid succession. "Aw, man, can I get you anything?" No response. "Are you even awake?"

"I just need to lay down a little," RJ whispered from under the covers. "I'll be right with you."

Casey sat on the edge of the bed and tugged on the covers to have a better look at RJ's face. The chef's usually pale cheeks were red and he shivered visibly before pulling the covers back to where they were.

Casey put a hand under the covers to touch RJ's forehead. "You have a fever," he informed his boss.

"Don't be silly, I'm just tired."

"And feverish."

"I don't have a fever," RJ insisted from under the covers.

"Dude, you're shivering."

"I'm not shivering," RJ insisted but he sneezed again and his point was rendered moot.

"Yes, you are."

"Well, the weather is cold."

"It's the middle of summer."

"It's cold for summer."

"Why don't you just admit you have a cold?" Casey asked with a chuckle.

"Because I can't have a cold."

"Why not? Because you're RJ the perfect heavenly creature who is inmune to our silly human diseases?"

That made RJ pull the blankets down so he could look at Casey with his reddened eyes. "No. I just can't have a cold because I'm the master and the boss and the home-keeper."

"RJ, we're not your children," Casey said. RJ huffed and rolled his eyes. "You are not even a father figure to us."

"Geez, man, that made me feel so much better, it cleared my cold right up," the wolf master whispered bitterly.

"Aha! So you DO have a cold!" Casey pointed out with a chuckle.

RJ sneezed again and curled tighter under his blankets. "Whatever, dude."

"Why don't you admit you have a cold, so we can look after you?" Casey offered.

"Because if I admit I have a cold, you will want to look after me."

"What's wrong with that? We're your friends," Casey said, putting a hand on the ball under the blankets that was RJ. "You'd do it for us."

"Of course I would, it's what us non-parental-figures do," RJ growled from under the covers. "Besides, if you look after me, you won't focus on DaiShi and you'll already be playing with one less man if a RinShi attacks."

"RJ, it's more distracting to know that you're feeling terribly and you won't let us help you."

"I'll be fine, I'll manage," the master dismissed from under the covers. "Just go back to work, Case."

"Fine," Casey said and got up from the bed. "Suit yourself."

He left the room and walked up to the kitchenette area of the loft, where Lily, Theo and Fran, who had arrived early for work, were drinking orange juice.

"He has a cold," he told them. "But he will chew through his own leg before he admits to it, or lets us look after him."

"What?" Theo asked, putting his glass down. Casey shrugged.

"Why? He'd totally look after us!" Lily objected.

"Yeah, that's because he's our parental figure, apparently."

"He's not our parental figure," Theo laughed off.

"I know," Casey said.

"He's more like a super cool older brother to me," Lily commented.

"Yeah, well, master, father or super cool older brother, he won't let us help him."

"Then we'll just have to make him," Fran said from the stairs. She was already on her way to RJ's bedroom.

"Fran!" Casey called after her to no effect.

The three rangers followed her to RJ's bedroom and found her with her hands on her hips and tapping one foot, looking at the figure under the blankets.

"Well?" she asked the blankets.

There was a sneeze from under the blankets but no verbal response.

"I'm waiting," She insisted.

"Just go back to work," RJ growled, sticking a hand out from under the covers to make a dismissive gesture. He pulled the hand back in quickly and wrapped the blankets closer to him.

Fran walked up to him and decidedly, pulled the blankets away from him.

"FRAN!" All four Power Rangers yelled. RJ in annoyance and his students in amazement.

"Give me back my covers," RJ demanded, sitting up.

"You, mister, have a fever," Fran sentenced, still holding on to the covers.

"Yeah, which means I'm very cold, please, give me back the covers," RJ all but begged.

"Not until you say we can look after you until you feel better," Fran snapped back, still holding on to the covers.

RJ looked at all of them and rolled his eyes. "And how would you look after me, exactly?" He crossed his arms and hunched his back, looking more like a pouting child than a majestic kung fu master. "I know how to nurse a cold, I've had them before, you know?"

It was then that it really dawned to Casey how alone RJ had been before they met him. He always had a smile for his costumers and he probably had had students at the academy before too, but in the end, he always went back to an empty home, with nobody else to look after him. A lone wolf if he had ever seen one.

Casey stepped forward, taking the covers from Fran and wrapping them over RJ's shoulders. RJ looked at him from the corner of his eye, still pouting.

"Hey, listen to me," Casey started. RJ wrapped the covers tighter around himself and looked directly at Casey's face. "Maybe you know all about nursing colds by yourself, I'm sure you know how to do a lot of things by yourself and for yourself, but you are not alone anymore, RJ."

RJ looked at the floor and simply wrapped the covers even tighter.

"RJ, we're here for you too, it's not a one-way street," Casey insisted. "You are not alone anymore, please, let us help you."

"I can look after myself," RJ whispered, sounding almost as if he was embarrassed. "You have other things to worry about."

"We do," Lily said sweetly, also stepping forward. "But we can worry about you too, you know?"

"Yeah," Theo agreed. "Just tell us what you need and we'll get it for you."

"RJ, you are our master by title," Casey said. "But you are our friend because you earned our friendship."

"We love you," Lily added, putting a hand on RJ's shoulder. "Because you love us."

"You're one of us, RJ," Theo said.

RJ closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, through his mouth because his nose was so clogged it may as well not be there at all, and relaxed his shoulders.

Fran put a hand on his forehead and nodded. "You have a fever, do you have anything for it?"

"I usually just drink water until it goes away," RJ whispered.

"How natural of you," Fran commented, making him chuckle.

"I don't keep anything for the fever around and I've never-" He swallowed hard and took another deep breath. "I've never had anybody to get me something from the drugstore."

The other four looked at him and smiled tenderly.

"Well, if you're serious about looking after me, then you can do for me everything I always wished I had someone to do for me when I have a cold," he threatened them.

Casey looked at the others, smirking. The he looked at RJ, his index finger pointing at him menacingly. "No massages."

RJ looked at him and chuckled. "No massages," he agreed. "But, you know, tea or soup would be nice. And a pill for the fever and the congestion wouldn't be too bad, I guess."

"We can take care of everything," Casey told him, wrapping an affectionate arm over the wolf master's shoulders. "You can trust us. The restaurant, the RinShi, everything you need until you feel better, we've got it under control."

"Yeah," Lily added. "You just lay down and rest. We'll handle everything."

"I'll go make that tea for you," Fran said and left the room.

"Lay down, we've got it," Casey reassured his master.

RJ smiled weakly and lay back down. Between Lily and Casey arranged the blankets and the pillows around him.

"Thanks guys," RJ whispered.

"You are not our father," Casey reminded him. "You are one of us."

"That sounds like a nice thing to be," RJ said, his eyes welling up. "I guess I just don't know how to not be alone anymore."

"Well, you better learn fast," Lily told him with a smile. "Because we're not going anywhere."

"Thanks."

They left the room and RJ was left on his bed, cozy under his blankets. He liked the idea of not being alone, even if it was for a little while. Because they would leave, when DaiShi was defeated.

He had almost dozed off, when Fran came in with a mug of tea. She set it on his nightstand and sat next to him on the bed. "Listen, RJ, I may not be one of the Power Rangers-"

"You are still my hero," RJ told her with a smile.

"I don't want to be your hero," she told him in a very serious tone. "I am your friend, RJ, you understand that, right?"

"I've had friends before, Fran."

"Have you? Have you ever had anyone, other than your father, offer to look after you when you have a cold?" He looked away from her. "Having a lot of people to smile at is not the same as having friends, RJ."

"Duly noted."

"I mean it, no matter what, we're here for you. Get that through your thick skull."

She tapped his forehead twice with her index finger and got up. RJ smiled as he sat up to drink his tea.

Friends who wanted to look after him.

What an abstract concept that was for a lonely wolf like him.


End file.
